Unveiling Love

Chapter One

Hey, readers! I wanted to warn you, I changed Rosa's age halfway through writing this. I just didn't feel like twenty was old enough for this story or the idea that went with it. So, I changed her "current" age to twenty-two.

If you notice the ages aren't right somewhere, please give me a heads up! I'm writing like crazy lately since I have all these fresh ideas, so I'm exhausted! LOL Thanks in advance for catching anything I miss! <3

WM

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"Are you sure you want to do this?" My mom asked me for the hundredth time. She probably asked me more than a hundred times if I was sure about my decision.

"I'm sure, Mom," I said, barely restraining from rolling my eyes.

"But what about Maisie?" She was sitting on the edge of my bed, folding a shirt to put into my suitcase.

"Maisie understands why I'm leaving. She thinks it's going to be exciting." I glanced at the picture of me and my best friend on my dresser. She'd freaked out when I told her where I was going and why. She thought I was crazy and was going to tell on me until I threatened to tell her parents about the boyfriend she wasn't allowed to have, but did. Spike-the rebel that worked at my brother's tattoo shop in town. He may have been one of the nicest men I'd ever met in my life, but at first glance, he made you want to pee your pants in fear.

"But you've been so close since you were little. Won't you miss her?"

Mom had been slightly different ever since her dad, Pop, passed away a few years before. Graham, Duke, and I had felt the full force of it because we were still living at home when it happened. It's like the only way she could cope with him being gone was to cling even harder to her kids. We didn't mind it because we knew how much Pop meant to her; how much he always will.

"Mom," I paused my packing to sit on the bed beside her. "Are you going to be okay?"

"I think so. It's just hard when all of your kids move away from you. I never thought I'd get to this point, where all of my kids are living on their own."

"I might move back to Ohio," I offered.

She gave me a sad smile. Her hair was pulled up into a bun on the top of her head, showing the gray hairs that had started appearing when I was still a teenager. She refused to dye it, though, saying she wasn't afraid of aging. Dad agreed with her; his hair had gone white years ago. I remember being in high school with a white-haired dad and thinking about how I wanted to be a young mom. I wanted my husband to be young, so when our kids were well into their thirties and forties, we'd be around.

But he wasn't young. He was so much older than me, and the thought terrified me, precisely because I wanted to be a young parent. He was nearing thirty-six, but I knew if I didn't try, I'd regret it. So at twenty-two years old, I was moving halfway across the country to be near a man that was fourteen years older than me. A man that was my sister's best friend and had worked for our family. A man that probably looked at me and still saw a little girl.

I was moving to be near a man that had unknowingly stolen my adolescent heart. The man that had stolen a kiss on my twentieth birthday, only to leave and pretend it never happened. From then on, I'd catch him looking at me out of the corner of my eye when they would come home or we'd go to Colorado. 

I hadn't told anyone about the kiss except for Maisie. She was the only one that knew the real reason I was moving to Colorado. My sister thought it was because I wanted to be near her, and I honestly did. I missed Ivy so much. Zane thought it was because I was obsessed with the school there, and I was. There were valid reasons that I wanted to move there, reasons outside of him, but none as crucial as Alessandro Valente Romano.

I remembered the text message on my phone from an unknown number, feeling a pang of pain.

"Don't do it." Was all it said, and I didn't even have to ask to know he'd sent it to me. Ivy must have mentioned I was moving there because I'd gotten the message only days after telling her.

He wanted to push me away for some reason, and I decided that I couldn't let him take away my choice to try to figure it out. I'd never texted him back, and I didn't even tell Mais about it. He wanted to ignore a kiss; I sure as heck could ignore his stupid message.

"I had to start putting the bags into the front seat, too." My dad stepped into the doorway and gaped at us. "Am I the only one working here?"

"No," Mom giggled. She still giggled at fifty-five. "I was having a heart to heart with our last bird to leave the nest."

That made me cringe. Duke had gotten married while he was still in high school. He and his girlfriend were eighteen, and no one could stop them. I remember how upset her parents were when she told them she was getting married. I could do nothing but encouraged them. They loved each other. There was no need to put that love on hold.

He'd moved out less than a year later when he'd found a stable job in town, working at a bank. It wasn't long before he moved up and became a branch manager. They had a son, a house, and a dog, and I was still living in my parents' home. It was frustrating since he was only nineteen.

My baby brother had completely grown up and started a family in a little over a year, and it made me feel like I was lagging. All my siblings were married except me. It was almost embarrassing.

"Well, get up, woman." Dad huffed, earning another laugh from my mom. "I've got plans for this bedroom."

He was lying. Every single bedroom looked the same as when we all lived here. Maybe all of our clothes and personal things were gone, but these rooms would always belong to us.

"Okay, okay!" I laughed. "I get it; you're excited for me to leave."

I stood and picked up one of the last few bags and moved to pull it downstairs when my dad stopped me with a hand on my arm.

"I don't want you to leave," he said.

"I know, Dad. But I already told Mom I'd probably be back. I don't even know how to change the oil in the car."

This admission earned a smile from both my parents. "Ivy can teach you that. She's better than I ever was," Mom said, standing. She zipped up the last suitcase and arched an eyebrow at my dad. "Are you going to get that, husband?" she asked.

"Are you still going to make me dinner if I don't, Wife?" He walked over and pulled her into a hug, kissing her right on the mouth. Gross.

"Ick," I said before heading for the stairs. I heard them moving around, and my mom's laughter rang out through the house. Despite my outward reaction to their PDA, I smiled. I loved that my parents loved each other. I especially loved that he could still make her laugh like a teenager. They were soulmates; I did not doubt that.